Identify Your Content Goals

Before getting into the research, it’s important to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve with your content. Perhaps you want to educate your audience, build thought leadership, or increase donations. No matter what you’re reaching for, your goals should reflect the overarching purpose of your association.

After identifying your content goals, define objectives that align with your nonprofit’s mission. They should follow the “SMART” criteria: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Here are some examples:

• Increase member engagement by 15% over the next year.
• Secure $20,000 in donations within the next fundraising quarter.
• Achieve a member satisfaction rating of at least 4.5 out of 5 in annual reader surveys.

These will come in handy when it’s time to assess your efforts.

Conducting Audience Research

The first step in creating engaging content is to understand your audience. Who are they? What are their demographics? What are their interests? What are their needs? What are their pain points? By understanding your audience, you can create content that is more likely to resonate with them.

Audience research for your nonprofit association comes in several forms. Below, we’ll discuss two of the best ways for associations to conduct this research. The information you discover will then lead the content development process.

Readership Surveys

A readership survey uses specific questions about your publication to measure audience preference. They allow you to gain valuable insights into your audience that can lead your magazine content strategy.

When creating a readership survey, keep it short and simple. Craft your questions around what you want to know about your audience. Develop multiple-choice questions about how often they read your magazine and what types of articles they find most engaging. While you should limit open-ended questions, it’s worth asking if participants have a topic they would like to see in future issues.

Don’t forget to include demographic questions such as age range, gender, occupation, and location. It’s up to you to determine what findings will best fit your association’s needs.

Online Analytics

Your association’s digital presence can give insight into what content performs well. Thanks to the internet, pulling data from your website and social media pages can be quite simple.

Google Analytics is a great tool to measure website activity—and you can install it for free! With it, you can gather data like page views and time spent on a page to determine what content is performing well. These insights transfer well to your magazine content strategy. Similar tools exist for social media like Hootsuite and Constant Contact.

Developing Engaging Content Based on Your Research

Now that you have a good understanding of your target audience, you can start to develop content that is tailored to their needs and interests. Base your content on the key trends you discovered through your research.

As you analyze your research, here are some tips for developing your magazine content:

• Focus on value. Every article you publish should provide value to your readers! This could be in the form of education, entertainment, or inspiration.
• Write in a clear and concise style. Avoid using jargon and technical terms that your readers may not understand, unless prevalent in your association’s industry.
• Use strong visuals. Captivating infographics can help break up your text and make your articles more visually appealing.
• Tell stories. People are more likely to remember a story rather than a list of facts. Use case studies, interviews, and personal anecdotes to bring your articles to life.
• Promote your content. Once your magazine is published, share it on your website, social media, and email list.

Evaluate your strategy

It’s important to assess the effectiveness of your content regularly to see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you to improve your content strategy over time. Review your SMART goals and adjust them as necessary. Ensure that your data is accurate by conducting readership surveys every year. Routinely check your Google Analytics web traffic, as well.

Are you looking for the right partner to design your magazine? Bonotom Studio has catered completely to associations like yours for more than 30 years. Contact us today to learn more.